Across the Nation

Posted: January 18, 2013 - 12:21am

Across The Nation

WASHINGTON

Lithium batteries that can leak corrosive fluid and start fires have emerged as the chief safety concern involving Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, a problem that apparently is far more serious than government or company officials acknowledged less than a week ago.

The Federal Aviation Administration late Wednesday grounded Boeing’s newest and most technologically advanced jetliner until the risk of battery fires is resolved. The order applies only to the six Dreamliners operated by United Airlines, the lone U.S. carrier with 787s. Other airlines and civil aviation authorities in other countries quickly followed suit.

AURORA, Colo.

The Colorado theater where 12 people were killed and dozens injured in a shooting rampage last year reopened Thursday with a somber remembrance ceremony and a screening of the latest “Hobbit” film for survivors — but the pain was too much, the idea too horrific, for many Aurora victims to attend.

“We as a community have not been defeated,” Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan told victims, officials and dozens of police officers and other first responders who filled half the theater’s seats at the ceremony.

“We are a community of survivors,” Hogan declared. “We will not let this tragedy define us.”

RALEIGH, N.C.

North Carolina received its first significant sign of winter Thursday as a low-pressure system merged with cold air to dump snow from the mountains to the piedmont.

As of 9 p.m., light snow was reported in Jefferson in northwest North Carolina, and to the south in Hickory. Snow was also reported in the Triad as well as the Research Triangle area. Most locations to the south were getting rain.

The National Weather Service also reported thundersnow in the Triad, where snow was reported to be falling at the rate of more than an inch an hour at one point.

BRIEFLY ...

• PHOENIX — Prosecutors rested their case Thursday in the high-profile trial of an Arizona woman accused of killing her on-again-off-again boyfriend in 2008. Jodi Arias, 32, could become the fourth woman on Arizona’s death row if she’s convicted.